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Supreme Court ruling could impact Texas-New Mexico water fight
Erich Schlegel / The Texas TribuneThe Rio Grande has been the lifeblood of the valleys and civilizations it flowed through for more than 3,000 years. As cities and farms suck it dry and a warming...
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Monsoons open some forests but aren’t enough for NM’s rivers
Laura Paskus / New Mexico Political ReportMonsoon rains are welcome, but after a dry winter, they’re not enough to boost reservoir levels or river flows. Afternoon storms have started spreading across...
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Dozens of groups ask Trump administration for more time to comment on border...
Julián Aguilar / The Texas TribuneBorder Patrol agents in New Mexico on April 9. More than three dozen environmental, faith-based and immigrant rights groups are urging the federal government to extend...
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Drought maintains its grip on NM despite storms, but El Niño is on the horizon
Laura Paskus / New Mexico Political ReportMonsoon season in New Mexico. Anyone who recently watched recent floodwaters rip down the Santa Fe River or the Rio Puerco — or had a skylight punctured by...
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In this rapaciously dry year, a quiet question has grown louder: What are we...
Stefan Wachs / High Country NewsColin Dyck and author Cally Carswell stand with their dog, Google, in the dry riverbed near their home in Santa Fe. COMMENTARY: Four years ago, my fiancé, Colin, and I...
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After the fires: What do we want?
Laura Paskus / New Mexico Political ReportUNM’s Matthew Hurteau. Matthew Hurteau spends a lot of time on the eastern flank of the Jemez Mountains, checking on seedlings and dodging a sunburn. On a...
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Outgoing administration won’t talk about water plan, but gubernatorial...
Laura Paskus / New Mexico Political ReportEl Vado Reservoir on the Chama River in northern New Mexico. Anyone who is paying attention to the Rio Grande’s drying riverbed and dropping reservoirs or is...
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Colorado River declines due to warming, new study finds
Laura Paskus / New Mexico Political ReportThe Colorado River supplies water to seven states, including New Mexico. The Colorado River supplies water to seven states, including New Mexico, before...
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State will consider boosting gas well density in northern NM
Laura Paskus / New Mexico Political ReportA gas well in Rio Arriba County. At its meeting on Thursday, the New Mexico Oil Conservation Committee will hear from an energy company that wants to double...
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Oil Conservation Commission will take up well density issue this fall
Laura Paskus / New Mexico Political ReportA gas well in Rio Arriba County. The New Mexico Oil Conservation Commission delayed a decision to approve an energy company’s request to increase well density...
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The country’s busiest oil and gas office has a plan for more drilling
If there is one swath of land that holds the most promise for Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s vision for energy dominance, it might be southeast New Mexico. The 6-million acre region includes part of...
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NM’s reservoirs weathered this year. But what will happen next year?
Laura Paskus / New Mexico Political ReportElephant Butte Reservoir on Sept. 10, when it was at 3.7 percent capacity. Right now, New Mexico’s largest reservoir is at about three percent capacity, with...
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As warming strains NM’s water supplies, ‘status quo’ no longer works
Laura Paskus / New Mexico Political ReportElephant Butte Reservoir on Sept. 10, at 3.7 percent capacity. It has since dropped to 3 percent capacity, or less than 60,000 acre feet of water. On the...
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As NM’s water situation worsens, legal battle over the Rio Grande intensifies
Laura Paskus / New Mexico Political ReportA storm brews near the Rio Grande in Albuquerque. Last winter, snows didn’t come to the mountains, and the headwaters of the Rio Grande suffered from drought....
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Tick, tock: For my generation’s sake don’t let the Land and Water...
COMMENTARY: I often solve problems by reconnecting with the natural world. I go on a hike, bike through the mountains, swim in the Rio Grande, and all my problems quickly disappear. When isolated from...
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International climate report warns of drastic, irreversible changes
Laura Paskus / New Mexico Political ReportThanks to a poor winter and long-term drought, New Mexico’s largest reservoir, Elephant Butte, is currently at 3.2 percent capacity. If humans don’t...
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Climate report makes clear the future is at stake, and we must act
Heath Haussamen / NMPolitics.netFive years after the Silver Fire in the Black Range in southern New Mexico, Gambel Oak is replacing pines in the burn scar. The Southwest has been losing its coniferous...
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On the Colorado River, will New Mexico be left in the dust?
Laura Paskus / New Mexico Political ReportThe Colorado River at the Hoover Dam. The Colorado River supplies water for more than 36 million people in two countries and seven states, including New...
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Communities want trees thinned. Timber companies want contracts. So what’s...
The Pew Charitable TrustsAnthony Culpepper, Aaron Kimple, Matt Cook and Laurel Sebastian — all of the Mountain Studies Institute — stand in a clearing atop Reservoir Hill in Pagosa Springs. The...
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The next governor must prioritize water and climate change
Laura Paskus / New Mexico Political ReportElephant Butte Reservoir has been below four percent capacity since late summer. COMMENTARY: The next governor of New Mexico needs to understand climate change...
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